Bradley Flynn Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Something that looks like a fossilized bone. Got it out of a rock I split open, the rock in the pic with the green arrows pointing to where I extracted the thing in question. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Sorry. You are starting in the same way that I did I'm afraid. With concretion that has a bone like shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Hahaha! It's all good! I'm having fun and learning. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Now that I know it's not a fossil I'm not worried if I damage it, so I chipped the rest of the rock off the "bone" and it confirms that it's not a bone. The section that was still attached to the rock has come of totally flat, not bone like at all. Thank Rockwood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Found it a few days before I herniated a disk in my back. Reading was about all I could do for a while and the library had Stephen Gould on the shelf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Rockwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 Well, I must say that the first few photographs following the very first (i.e. 2-4) still look quite convincing for a plesiosaur propodial, at least in terms of shape - though it'd be a rather small one (but not impossibly so, IMO, as I have a propodial in my collection only slightly bigger) and there's no clear bone texture that'd typically be a good give-away (radial towards the distal end of a plesiosaur propodial). I take it find location is in New Jersey? I'm asking since the location would, of course, need to allow for marine reptile bones to be found... Anyway, when looking at the cross-section in photo 5, this doesn't look as propodial to me anymore... Although, the central depression could be the central bone core typical of plesiosaur propodials, as this would be such a small and immature specimen (see image below as to what I mean). Thing is, plesiosaur propodials, depending on their preservation, may be very smooth on the outside, with hardly any bone texture visible, and solid-looking on the inside, due to their pachyostic bone condition... What makes me less sure of such an identification, however, is the final prepped piece, especially the flat surface - though I'd need to have better pictures available to make up my mind about that... @Rockwood's final specimen to me is a clear conception, however... 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon thanks for your in depth explanation This was a surface find at an early permian site, the permian rocks of the ecca group do not have any rock that resembles the matrix that the "bone" was found in. Also, there is no record of large aquatic species in this area, small aquatic Mesosaurids have been described from this specific site. Unfortunately better pics are not possible as I no longer have it. Maybe I have another pic I could share somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 Well, at least that explains all the fun you guys had at my original suggestion - and once again proves context is everything! For my hypothesis to have worked, the find should at least have bee made close to end-Triassic in time. Still, a formation in which mesosaurids have been found doesn't sound bad either 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted August 19, 2020 Author Share Posted August 19, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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